Hey all...how's A-town? The raining season seems to be slowing down here, now it rains about once every 2 or so days instead of everyday. This seems nice now, but once I move to my site in the upperwest I will dread it. Since I rely on water from a borehole, and since the boreholes dry up, I'm going to have to learn to be resourceful real quick. Guess I'm gonna have to learn to bathe using the water sachets :)
The other weekend we all went to this place called Bote Falls. Mom--when you come here, this is a must! Anyways, it was seriously the most incredible sight I've ever seen. There were 2 waterfalls that are straight out of a movie. I really wanted to swim, but they sent 3 trainers along with us, I think exactly for this reason, plus it was somehow cold down by the water. Afterwards we went on this hour-long hike that had parts that were practically straight uphill. And it all ended at this HUGE rock called Umbrella Rock that overlooks what looks like all of Ghana. So beautiful. Unfortunately my camera is currently out of commission due to a leaky water bottle that was in my purse :() However, I made sure everyone else took many photos and I'm about to set up a new website that all the other trainees can use to post their pics. As soon as I know the site...I'll let you know.
There is also some huge festival going on in the town we're staying in. For the past week there has been a huge influx of people coming from all over to see this thing. There have been people walking the streets at 9 am with beers in their hand...kinda reminds me of Panama City in highschool....no, but it is quite interesting. Today is the actual festival so I'm even a little nervous to see what it will be like.
Other than these highlights, my days have pretty much been filled with training. I get up at about 5 or 6 (or whenever the sweeping my mother is doing outside my bedroom wakes me up...sometimes 430) and have language lessons by 8. They are going really well, I'm learning Degarre, "Ansomal, fo gar be son?", and I really enjoy it. There are 3 other trainees in my group and we are all about at the same level, so it makes it easy and enjoyable. They will also be my closest neighbors once we move so it is nice that we get to know each other so well now. After language they find some ways for us to fill our days; our only day off is Sunday. There are many technical sessions where they attempt to make teachers out of us, along with sessions about the culture. Plus we have personal projects that we were assigned to do, and my group is going to try and hold a "career fair" next week for the youth of the community that are not in school. It is either going to be completely hit or miss. But its all just a learning experience so that we dont screw up too badly once we actually get to our site.
Oh, I almost forgot, I had to bring out the old soccer skills from highschool last week, we played trainees vs. trainers. All week they kept talking about how awesome they were and how they were gonna completely slaughter us, at we totally whooped their asses! It was awesome. And what seems like the entire village came to watch. There were people everywhere on the sidelines, but I guess we're pretty used to people staring at us by now anyways. It was pretty cool though, it was like we had consessions and everything because all the women came with their various foods and drink for sale on their heads. And I've even found "soy-a" kabobs here. They are quite tasty...just very chewy tofu and onion covered with pepe (the local seasoning they put on everything, I mean EVERYTHING, that is made from peppers and can be quite hot). They're really good, in fact, my homestay mother is busy making some right now (it is a 48 hour process!). A girls gotta get her protein!
Oh, did I mention before that I ran into Jeremy Davis from highschool?? Crazy! We were waiting on this PCV coming down from somewhere up north to talk to us in Twi, and give us some tips on how he became fluent, and he was running late. I said to a friend, "Oh, this guy better be very cute if we're going to have to stick around for so long waiting on him." And he finally showed up, and out from the car comes Jeremy. It was so weird! So I talked with him, and hes been in the peace corps for the last 2 years, and is actually about to come home...I think in about 2 weeks. It's kinda surreal you know, to see someone from back home here...but I always knew it was a small world. In fact, something else wierd, you know my friend Jimmy that I used to hang with all the time before he moved to Portland? Well, looks like he was the chemistry TA for one of my good friends here. So, there you go....a little piece of home no matter where you go.
Ok, I better go for now, as always, I love hearing from you...thanks for writing. I love you all, and hope everything is going your way :)
Love, Di
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Hey everyone!! Sorry it took me so very long to write...they are keeping us crazily busy! I don't even know where to begin:
I moved in with my home-stay family a little over 2 weeks ago. It is my mother, father, 22 yr. old sister, my 21 yr. old brother (who I swear looks exactly like a cute version of Chris Rock!), my 16 yr. old brother and my 14 yr. old brother. We definately have a full house :) I have my own room though, with plenty of room to lounge (if I ever actually get the time to lounge). My fam is all very nice, but they worry A LOT about my well-being. "Are you sure you ate enough?" "What time will you be home?" "Where are you going?" I had no idea that for the first 2 months living in Ghana I would be 14 again. But I know they are only doing it out of concern, so it's ok. Plus my mother is such an amazing cook, I have to let the small things go. Seriously, the food is very good, foreign, but good. I have even grown to cherish fu-fu. I think my all time favorite is rice balls (exactly like they sound) and ground-nut soup (ground-nuts are just peanuts :) Oh, and my entire family has read "A light in the Attic" that I brought, and regularly come in my room to listen to Bob Marley on my ipod.
I began teaching last week, and will finish up this Friday. At first it was a bit stressful b/c I'm teaching to the youngest group of students. It is equivalent to 6th and 7th grade in the US, except they are actually a huge range of ages. I'd say the youngest is probably around 7 and the oldest is probably 16. And they are all at very different skill levels. The first 2 classes I taught did not go over very smoothly at all. I couldn't understand why they were all just staring at me when I asked a question, despite how easy it may be. For example "What color is the grass?" No response!! I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but it is no fun. I really wanted to run out of the room! But I later learned that they actually had no idea what the hell I was saying. Since then, I feel like I can say that I've pretty much mastered the Ghanaian English (or Ghanish for short). And I've also learned how to use examples that they understand, like for the food chain...the grass is eaten by a grass-cutter, and a grass-cutter is eaten by humans (by the way, none of you should ever hope to eat grass-cutters (they're like guinea pigs), but it's quite common here). So, in a nutshell, my classes are going very well now. I actually feel like I'm teaching these kids some practical stuff, and I'm doing my best to make it as fun as possible.
Speaking of fun, you know I have not been entirely consumed by just work here. That would just be too unlike me. So, for the 4th of July, we gathered every American in sight, and went to a "spot" (since there really are no bars here, thats what they call the places you can go to drink beer/gin and get some food.) Basically we just drank a bunch of beer and played cards all night. I must say that by all night, I mean until like 730 pm. It gets dark so very early here, like 6 or 630 so even though it is early, when you're walking down pitch black streets with no street lamps it feels like it's 2 am. Plus we are waking up at about 5 am, whether you actually need to get up or not, so by 10 pm everyone is completely exhausted. They actually have fire works here, but we couldnt find any in time for the forth..but we still had fun. Then on Saturday, they taught us some Ghanaian dances that we're going to perform at our swearing in ceremony in August. So, afterwards we went to another spot and this time made this crazy concoction (sp?) consisting of whisky, fan ice (this is like crazy sweet vanilla ice cream) and coke. It was actually quite good, and put us all in the mood for some African dancing. So, all night we had the spot put reggae music on and we dance. Then yesterday, we all got together for a game of ultimate frisbee. It was like 10 obrunis (white man) and about a village and a half of kids. At some point we had to part from the kids so that we could get a real game in. It was a blast, and I really needed the exercise b/c although I'm walking at least 3 miles a day, I haven't really had a chance to get my heart rate up. Unfortunately my frisbee somehow got broken in half while the kids were playing with it. It's still a mystery to me.
So, yeah, things overall are well. I'm trying to balance being serious, and teaching, with still finding time to relax and relieve stress. It looks like I only have 3 more minutes before this internet kickes me off, so I will have to get back to a computer very soon. I have many pictures I want to upload, and I still have many emails to respond to. So, don't worry, I will write again soon......Thanks for all your posts, I love hearing from you all. I love you. -D
I moved in with my home-stay family a little over 2 weeks ago. It is my mother, father, 22 yr. old sister, my 21 yr. old brother (who I swear looks exactly like a cute version of Chris Rock!), my 16 yr. old brother and my 14 yr. old brother. We definately have a full house :) I have my own room though, with plenty of room to lounge (if I ever actually get the time to lounge). My fam is all very nice, but they worry A LOT about my well-being. "Are you sure you ate enough?" "What time will you be home?" "Where are you going?" I had no idea that for the first 2 months living in Ghana I would be 14 again. But I know they are only doing it out of concern, so it's ok. Plus my mother is such an amazing cook, I have to let the small things go. Seriously, the food is very good, foreign, but good. I have even grown to cherish fu-fu. I think my all time favorite is rice balls (exactly like they sound) and ground-nut soup (ground-nuts are just peanuts :) Oh, and my entire family has read "A light in the Attic" that I brought, and regularly come in my room to listen to Bob Marley on my ipod.
I began teaching last week, and will finish up this Friday. At first it was a bit stressful b/c I'm teaching to the youngest group of students. It is equivalent to 6th and 7th grade in the US, except they are actually a huge range of ages. I'd say the youngest is probably around 7 and the oldest is probably 16. And they are all at very different skill levels. The first 2 classes I taught did not go over very smoothly at all. I couldn't understand why they were all just staring at me when I asked a question, despite how easy it may be. For example "What color is the grass?" No response!! I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but it is no fun. I really wanted to run out of the room! But I later learned that they actually had no idea what the hell I was saying. Since then, I feel like I can say that I've pretty much mastered the Ghanaian English (or Ghanish for short). And I've also learned how to use examples that they understand, like for the food chain...the grass is eaten by a grass-cutter, and a grass-cutter is eaten by humans (by the way, none of you should ever hope to eat grass-cutters (they're like guinea pigs), but it's quite common here). So, in a nutshell, my classes are going very well now. I actually feel like I'm teaching these kids some practical stuff, and I'm doing my best to make it as fun as possible.
Speaking of fun, you know I have not been entirely consumed by just work here. That would just be too unlike me. So, for the 4th of July, we gathered every American in sight, and went to a "spot" (since there really are no bars here, thats what they call the places you can go to drink beer/gin and get some food.) Basically we just drank a bunch of beer and played cards all night. I must say that by all night, I mean until like 730 pm. It gets dark so very early here, like 6 or 630 so even though it is early, when you're walking down pitch black streets with no street lamps it feels like it's 2 am. Plus we are waking up at about 5 am, whether you actually need to get up or not, so by 10 pm everyone is completely exhausted. They actually have fire works here, but we couldnt find any in time for the forth..but we still had fun. Then on Saturday, they taught us some Ghanaian dances that we're going to perform at our swearing in ceremony in August. So, afterwards we went to another spot and this time made this crazy concoction (sp?) consisting of whisky, fan ice (this is like crazy sweet vanilla ice cream) and coke. It was actually quite good, and put us all in the mood for some African dancing. So, all night we had the spot put reggae music on and we dance. Then yesterday, we all got together for a game of ultimate frisbee. It was like 10 obrunis (white man) and about a village and a half of kids. At some point we had to part from the kids so that we could get a real game in. It was a blast, and I really needed the exercise b/c although I'm walking at least 3 miles a day, I haven't really had a chance to get my heart rate up. Unfortunately my frisbee somehow got broken in half while the kids were playing with it. It's still a mystery to me.
So, yeah, things overall are well. I'm trying to balance being serious, and teaching, with still finding time to relax and relieve stress. It looks like I only have 3 more minutes before this internet kickes me off, so I will have to get back to a computer very soon. I have many pictures I want to upload, and I still have many emails to respond to. So, don't worry, I will write again soon......Thanks for all your posts, I love hearing from you all. I love you. -D
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This is me at the Amsterdam airport after far too many hours without sleep! I didn't realize quite how scary I look in the picture until I posted it...but I think it's funny.
This was one of the first meals I ate with my homestay family. I soon figured out that it was not customary for Ghanaians to eat together like this (they were just doing it as a sort of introduction to the family) and I ended up eating most of the meals over the next 10 weeks alone, which I was totally ok with. It also is not customary to talk while eating in Ghana (due to the abundant amount of spices used in the food, they are afraid they will choke if they try and talk while eating) so eating alone is virtually the same experience anyways.
Here is a pic of me and the girls at a spot. Check out the gigantic beers they serve here (for only 1 Ghana Cedi too!).
I took this picture while riding in a car on the way to Bote Waterfalls. At first I was like "shoot I think I accidently got those people that we were passing in the photo", but once I saw it I thought it was a really cool pic.
This is Kukurantumi, the town where I had training. It is right before the daily rain...
A kiss for you!